6/08/2010 @ 6:00PM

Waterproofing Your Vacation

Patrick Mish has a unique way of attracting attention at beach resorts: Take an Amazon Kindle out to sea on an inflatable raft. During a vacation to St. John last month, Mish and his wife used the pricey electronic readers to read books and newspapers while lounging in the Caribbean. They even tossed their Kindles into the air a few times and let them splash into the water.

Mish says onlookers were so flabbergasted that they swam out to the couples’ raft to investigate. “We said, ‘They’re in waterproof cases!,’” he laughs. “After that, we were dubbed ‘the Kindle people.’”

A year ago, it would have seemed insane to go swimming with a $260 e-reader. Lately, however, the development of sophisticated waterproof cases and gadgets has made devices from cameras to cellphones to e-readers safe for the beach.

Consider camcorders. Using watertight seals and rings, manufacturers including Kodak, Panasonic, Sanyo and
Toshiba
have taken these finicky devices and made them beach-proof. The process is elaborate, says Andrei Andrievsky, a Kodak product manager who led the development of the company’s waterproof PlaySport camcorder. In terms of design, PlaySport needed to have a non-slip surface and a shape that would fit securely in one hand while remaining lightweight and stylish. To keep out moisture, the device’s parts need to lock together seamlessly and hold up under immense water pressure.

Making video shot amid waves look good was another challenge. Kodak created an “underwater capture mode” that corrects color in videos, essentially removing some of the blue and green tint found in pool and sea water. It also included an electronic image stabilization feature to tone down the shakiness that comes with shooting in and under water.

Though Kodak declined to comment on future product plans, Andrievsky hints that more waterproof gadgets are in the works. “We feel very strongly about the PlaySport line,” he says. “The waterproof category has a lot of potential.”

Tom Kampfer agrees. As chief executive of H2O Audio, Kampfer oversees a range of waterproof accessories from headphones to iPhone cases to neoprene armbands for iPods. The San Diego-based company, which was founded in 2003 by three divers who wanted the ability to swim with music, now caters to everyone from surfers to wave runners, kayakers and triathletes. Next, H2O Audio plans to target the millions of joggers, bicyclists and gym rats that might want audio gear that can be worn in the rain or rinsed after an intense workout. It may also make a waterproof iPad case. (See “Creating A Waterproof iPad Case”) “We think these products suit any active lifestyle,” says Kampfer. “There’s water, sweat, rain, snow and dirt everywhere.”

Similar logic inspired Mish to develop his waterproof Kindle case, which he calls the Guardian. Mish, who runs the Baltimore-area e-reader accessory company M-Edge, says he wants consumers to be able to take their e-readers anywhere they love to read, including beaches, pools and boats. To enable that, he crafted a case that not only protects an e-reader’s screen, buttons and other controls from the elements, but also floats.

Producing the case, which will go on sale June 9 for $80, took about a year, says Mish. The design consists of two hinged trays with four latches and a rubber gasket for a watertight seal. Three internal, air-filled buoyancy chambers ensure the case will float, screen up, in water.

While M-Edge is a recent convert to the power of waterproofing, companies like Casio have been making water-safe gadgets for years. Sue Vandershans, creative director for Casio America, says Casio produced its first water-resistant product, a “G-Shock” watch, 27 years ago. The company now sells a number of waterproof and water-resistant devices, including plastic “Baby-G” watches, rugged “G’zOne” cellphones and, most recently, a “G-1″ digital camera.

Like other manufacturers, Casio is positioning these products as necessities, not niche devices. “Most people today encounter some water in their daily routine, even if it’s just sitting at a lunch table when someone knocks over a jug of water,” says Vandershans. A waterproof gadget will be able to “endure whatever life throws at you,” she adds.

That’s increasingly true for cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, watches and even binoculars, but rarely cellphones. (Exceptions include Casio’s G’zOne and other rugged phones, as well as some Japanese cellphones.)

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at the NPD Group, calls the dearth of waterproof phones surprising, but notes that the current trend is to make handsets as thin as possible and waterproofing tends to make devices bulky. One alternative is to invest in a waterproof bag from a company like Aquapac. The plastic cases, which seal using special grooves, levers and clips, can be stuffed with small gadgets, wallets, keys and other valuables, and worn around the neck or waist. Not as flashy as a floating Kindle cover, but just as practical.